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7/3/2009
Missing more than a deadline
North Carolina also has company in engaging in that debate. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that forty-eight states have faced shortfalls that add up to $166 billion, almost a fourth of the total of state budgets.
7/3/2009
Where no Gov has gone before in public opinion
By the end of his second term, Easley was one of the least-popular governors in the United States. The putrid aroma emanating from the Governor's Mansion was a major handicap for the Democrat seeking to replace Easley, Beverly Perdue. That she just barely won against Republican Pat McCrory in one of the most pro-Democratic election cycles in decades can be attributed in large measure to the failures of her predecessor.
7/2/2009
Franklin's voice missed in voting rights debate
As a historian, Dr. Franklin had a keen awareness of the policies and court decisions that carried us out of segregation. From the 1940s to the 1960s, when the battle to desegregate public institutions was being waged in the courts, it was John Hope Franklin who provided expert testimony and intellectual rigor to the cause. Towards the middle of the 1960s the front lines of the civil rights movement shifted to Congress, where the debate swirled around legislation designed to ensure access to the ballot. One of the signature accomplishments of that era came in 1965 when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act.
7/1/2009
Hiking the Appalachian Trail is a serious matter
Asheville's Danny Bernstein is a passionate hiker who loves hiking in the North Carolina mountains. She is a prolific writer about hiking. Understandably, she does not like anyone to make light of hiking.
6/30/2009
Seizing the opportunity in these tough economic times
Nearly 80 years earlier, Gardner's decision-making had become a model for how states could emerge from an economic depression with their financial houses in order.
6/29/2009
State wants health care reform
Employer health insurance premiums rose 5.5 percent in 2007 and another 5 percent in 2008, twice the rate of inflation. The annual insurance premium for a family of four is now better than $12,700 per year. We spend $7,900 per person on health expenditures. That's 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, about six percent more than other developed countries. Big spenders as we are there are 46 million uninsured, about one million here in North Carolina. Continued layoffs and plant closings will only increase that number.